Another rip-roaring, sci-fi game of Pulp Alley today, this time featuring the debonair, quip-cracking, buckle-swashing Archduke Ramirez Connery Bond and his adventuring companions versus the nefarious, drug-fueled mercenary forces of the Purgators. It was also a great opportunity to get my first game in with my new Battle Systems interior terrain.

“Anvil 459” (digital-art-gallery.com)

Like many settled human worlds, a large number of artificial bodies orbit Krellborn. Composed of vessels, stations and equipment from many varied sources which occasionally predate Imperial settlement, the various points of light that cross the Krellborn sky at night are collectively known as “Anvils”. Whether this title is connected with the objects propensity to unexpectedly plummet from decaying orbits onto the planet below is lost to history.

Many orbital Anvils are still in use by legitimate concerns. Due to the loose and distant connection between Krellborn and much of the rest of the Imperium, many are also used to house shadier enterprises that highly value their independence.

Although it maintains life support via solar scoops and atmosphere generating self regulating hydroponics, Anvil 459 was was abandoned seven solar cycles ago. However, due to the planetary upheavals caused by the exposure of the Ragna Rock and the subsequent stirring of the buried Necrontyr, information located in Anvil 459 has unexpectedly rendered it a battleground between mercenaries and adventurers.

Medical data can be extracted from the Auto-Doc unit in the Infirmary.

Shipment details are available from the Cargo Console in the Cargo Bay.

The station overseers log is available from a Datapad in the Barracks.

The Holo-Generator in the Supply Depot potentially contains more clues.

The maintenance record for the Turbine in Engineering will tie down the timetable of events.

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The Game

After combining their resources in a flurry of tough talk and sabre rattling in order to gain access to the abandoned satellite station, the two groups have split up to cover more ground…

…meaning that the initial in game deployment is spread around the complex. The action starts as each side realises that the other has no intention of cooperating beyond this point and pistols are drawn.

Tumbleweed accelerates the growth of spores from the hydroponics area to block Purgator entry to Engineering from the North. L’Oreal advances on the Turbine, determined to gather early intel.

Max orders Freeway to advance and engage. With a synthesised, metallic growl, the cyber-pooch sprints down the corridor and attacks a Purgator trooper, who is lucky to remain standing…

Ramirez and Dr. Voidstrom consolidate the Adventurers position in Engineering…

…just in time to see the bloodied body of Max being hurled through the door by the roaring brutish form of Pig Iron…

…which is then followed up by a fiery enfilade from Holy Smoke on the opposite side of the room.

Meanwhile Cypher proceeds down the Western corridor…

…and gets to the Infirmary unopposed. A deft flick of a mechadendrite gets Cypher the required information from the Auto-Doc, putting the Purgators in the lead.

L’Oreal uses his fey agility to avoid the gouts of burning promethium. Never one to be outdone in style stakes, Ramirez cartwheels over the turbine and downloads the machine schematics via noospheric connection before he lands. Never that keen on fire, Tumbleweed heads for the North-West exit with Ramirez while L’Oreal holds the Purgators off.

With a brief moment to digest the gravity of the information in the station overseers Datapad, Ramirez countenance becomes grim. “When you are quite finished Ramirez…” snarks L’Oreal over the com. “…things are getting a bit sticky in Engineering…”

Meanwhile after his auto-repair protocols rerouted power from his auxiliary systems the miraculously resuscitated Freeway has been holding the cyborg known as Bull from discovering the information available in the cargo bay.

Enthusiasm got the better of the pict-remembrancer at this point, meaning that the stark image of a diverted Pig Iron avoiding the cyber-mastiff and ripping the cargo room console from the wall will have to be imagined by the viewer…

Dr Voidstrom – a lover not a fighter – is ill equipped to take part in the firefight in Engineering and retreats to the Supply Depot, only to be confronted by a masked Purgator trooper. “Shall we Parlay? slobbers the crustacean.

Voidstroms gambit works, throwing the Purgator trooper off guard enough to allow the Doctor to quickly download the data from the Holo-Generator and escape through the door into engineering…

…where the Decapodian is dismayed to find a toxic, part industrial machinery, part man armed with a syringe bearing down on him. All hope is not lost however, as Freeway (visible in the top of the image) is busily ripping the throat from another Purgator trooper and on his way to save the physician.

Knowing that the success of the mission relies upon the data that Dr Voidstrom is carrying Ramirez runs towards him with Tumbleweed in tow, hipshooting at any Purgators en route. Unfortunately L’Oreal has been overwhelmed…

…and passes out in a pool of his own inhuman blood.

As Codename: Bull is attacked yet again by the tenacious Freeway, Voidstrom decides that it is time to initiate the rite of Claw-Plach and leaps at the cyborg, claws snapping and head-fin fully extended…

…three way battle rages…

…but just as the Adventurers gain the upper claw, the timely intervention of Codename: Pig Iron drops the Decapodian. “Physician, heal thyself” rumbles Pig Iron with a distrubingly tinny laugh.

Ignoring the epic struggle between cyber-mastiff and bulldozer-man, the weird form of Cypher extracts the data crystal from the immobile body of Dr Voidstrom, ending the game in a draw.

—————

Pulp Alley delivers again, generating a fun game with real decisions to be made and entertaining narrative full of derring-do and narrowly avoided scrapes. The new card terrain was fun to use and despite some concerns as to how the doors and the like might effect the tight six turn limit of a Pulp Alley game, it worked out perfectly in the end. PB also managed to get his newly painted Purgator force on the table, which was cool.

24 Responses

Thanks gnoks. Although the scenery takes a while to assemble, I dont think that I could ever have made terrain like this in a way that didnt take the rest of my life. Its pretty cool, but it does take a while to put together.

Thank you Axiom. The Battle Systems stuff does give it a nice TV sci-fi look I think. The terrain is like flat pack furniture, in that it takes quite a while to assemble. Then on top of that getting the game set up right takes a bit of planning too (I will do it very differently next time).

GW have just re-released Space Hulk and as per usual made a right mess of it, so many opportunities lost. Why oh why did’nt they get you to do the presentation and organise it ? Lovely work as per usual and lots of fun 🙂

I am actually a big fan of the 09 version of Space Hulk. Its an almost perfect distillation down to the best bits of what had come before. The new 2014 edition has a couple of extra bells and whistles and while the completist in me would like to buy it, I cant justify it for what is an almost identical version to the last edition. If I didnt own the 09 version I would buy this new edition immediately however.

While GW could potentially do lots of things to make this edition different, Im not sure that those changes would make the game better. I used to want a 3D Space Hulk set up, but I dont think that it suits a game that plays as quickly as Space Hulk does. I do like having 3D stuff for Pulp Alley and he like though, but thats because the games take longer and are immersive in a different way.

Of course, there isnt anything stopping me from playing Space Hulk with the Battle Systems terrain if I want to 🙂

The flat pack element makes the job straighforward, but time consuming. It took me longer to get that stuff ready than it took to put together the Ikea furniture in my bedroom.

That said, the game was great fun and the pictures really do look quite cool, so assembly time is just a memory now. I was unsure for a while, but I am now certain that I will easily get my moneys worth from the terrain.

And obviously, I hope to kick the cloacas off the Order of the Dawn in a similar environment before the end of the year.

I will take a couple of photos of the sets stored to show you how I dealt with it Suber. Its possible to store it in a quite compact fashion, although ideally I would rather store it in sub assemblies for ease of future set up.

A valid point for sure. I was experimenting with a minor character (Ally) with access to an additional Ability due to a League Perk that was dedicated entirely to non-com duties. Voidstrom was quite lucky, but managed to get a few things done all the same.

A very enjoyable report with some mighty fine eye-candy, my pulp alley rules & cards arrived mid-week while I was away & I hoping to get my first game in over the weekend, this report only makes the wait all the worse.

Thanks Frank, I am glad that you enjoyed it and also that it convinced you to try Pulp Alley. PA may not “click” the first time that you try it – unlike most miniatures games its not quite all about combat which can make it feel a little odd initially – but its worth sticking with. Definitely my favourite tabletop miniatures skirmish rule set by a long shot.

Looks great, and was even a fun read – so I’m sure it was also fun to play. Your BS terrain really brings the backgrounds to life. I’ll have to find time to assemble (or even just open the box) one day…

Thanks Azazel. Pulp Alley keeps delivering for us, generating the sort of TV show antics that I like.

A lot like flat pack furniture, I figured that if I didnt get stuck into assembling the Battle Systems terrain as soon as it arrived then it might become a monkey on my back rather than a source of enjoyment/satisfaction. Therefore I dropped other hobby plans that I had that would have been more enjoyable in order to prep the BS stuff.